UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival

Shout out to Haneol Lee for his recent successes with his film "First Night" which we featured at our festival recently! Also, thanks for the shoutout!

Vanderbilt filmmaking renaissance: A story of success and a season of film festivals Three Vanderbilt student films, “Cupid,” “First Night” and “On the Dying Grass” are being recognized at major film festivals around the world.

Check out some photos from this year's festival! All credit for the photos goes to Kirsten Callahan!

We wanted to think everyone for coming out and supporting our 10th annual festival this year! Here are the winners from this past weekend:

Best Narrative Feature:
The Good People of Orphan Ridge

Best Documentary Feature:
King Coal

Best Narrative Short:
First Night

Best Documentary Short:
You're Going to Make It

Best Animated Film:
T-130

Best Experimental Film:
Necktie Cinema

Young Filmmaker :
Dreamer

The Impact Award:
The Soda

Spirit of the Mountains:
King Coal

Best of Show:
King Coal

Today is the 2nd day of our festival and we are screening a huge slate of awesome films! Check out our full schedule below. All screenings are free and open to the public! Come see us at The Appalachian Center for the Arts!

9:00 AM Narrative Block 1
Moonshine Over Kepler County
Melody’s Murmur
Xiaohui and his cows
Blessed Demon

10:00 AM High School Block
Keep The Change
Alphabet Soup
Wild Will
Out of Pocket
The Soda

11:00 AM Animation Block
Bird Drone
Dreamer
Shakespeare for all Ages
Earthling
ELECTRA WASP
Little Hiccups
Necktie Cinema
Goro Goro
Imago
The Boy From Lookout Mountain
Distract
T-130
The Nature of Art

12:30 PM Feature – King Coal
King Coal

2:30 PM Documentary Block
FIRE’21
Stewards of The Land
Past, Present, Future
You’re Going To Make It
After the Flood
Everybody Loves Maako
Curtsy

4:30 PM Narrative Block 2
Befriending the Living
Carrots for Conrad
Fishbowl
First Night
Nothing in the Middle of Nowhere
Portraits
Reunion
The Chair at the Edge of the Woods
TOAST

6:30 PM Dinner and Awards Show

7:30 PM Feature – The Good People of Orphan Ridge
The Good People of Orphan Ridge

Tonight is the opening night of the 10th Annual UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival at The Appalachian Center for the Arts in downtown Pikeville! We are showcasing a variety of select UPIKE student work from this academic year! Here is tonight's schedule which will close with a screening of the first-ever UPIKE student-directed feature film (see the trailer).

5:00 PM UPIKE Student Films – Short Docs
Appcycled
Happy Church
Opioids
The History of Mortal Kombat

5:30 PM UPIKE Student Films – Narrative Shorts
The Workplace
Wirm
Race to Friendship
Attack of the Homework
Killsbury Doughboy
Fishing for Love
Outside In
Holiday Guardian Angel
Pyre Pete
Flame War

7:30 PM UPIKE Student Feature Film
They Can’t Take Their Eyes Off You

We are ecstatic to have the Pikeville premiere of the new documentary King Coal (which recently screened at Sundance) coming to The Appalachian Center for the Arts this Saturday at 12:30 pm as part of the 10th Annual UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival! The screening is free and open to the public and there will be a Q&A session following the film with co-producer Molly Born! Trailer:

King Coal | Official Trailer Drexler Films, Cottage M, & Fishbowl Films present: "King Coal"Written and Directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon Produced by Shane Boris & Diane Becker Pr...

The 10th Annual UPIKE Film and Media Arts Festival is Friday, April 5th and Saturday, April 6th at the The Appalachian Center for the Arts! All film screenings will be free and open to the public. Friday will feature films from UPIKE students, and that schedule is forthcoming. Saturday, we are showcasing a variety of films from across the country with at least 7 filmmaking teams behind some of the movies confirmed to be present. Here is our finalized schedule for that Saturday:

9:00 AM Narrative Block 1
Moonshine Over Kepler County
Melody’s Murmur
Xiaohui and his cows
Blessed Demon

10:00 AM High School Block
Keep The Change
Alphabet Soup
Wild Will
Out of Pocket
The Soda

11:00 AM Animation Block
Bird Drone
Dreamer
Shakespeare for all Ages
Earthling
ELECTRA WASP
Little Hiccups
Necktie Cinema
Goro Goro
Imago
The Boy From Lookout Mountain
Distract
T-130
The Nature of Art

12:30 PM Feature – King Coal
King Coal

2:30 PM Documentary Block
FIRE’21
Stewards of The Land
Past, Present, Future
You’re Going To Make It
After the Flood
Everybody Loves Maako
Curtsy

4:30 PM Narrative Block 2
Befriending the Living
Carrots for Conrad
Fishbowl
First Night
Nothing in the Middle of Nowhere
Portraits
Reunion
The Chair at the Edge of the Woods
TOAST

6:30 PM Dinner and Awards Show

7:30 PM Feature – The Good People of Orphan Ridge
The Good People of Orphan Ridge

Our final deadline for submissions is February 18th, and while we have had a record number of submissions this year, we are still looking for more high-quality films to showcase. We will have over $1,000 in prizes and you can submit for free if your film has a connection to KY, VA, or WV. Submit at

UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival Welcome to the 10th Anniversary of the UPIKE Film and Media Arts Festival. The goal of our event is to promote the art of filmmaking in Eastern Kentucky. W...

Hello filmmakers, we are now taking submissions to our 10th Annual UPIKE Film and Media Arts Festival! Submit at https://filmfreeway.com/fmafest Films with connections to KY, VA, and WV can submit for free! Filmmakers that have screened with us in the past should check their inbox for a waiver code to submit for free if they are outside of the tri-state region. The final deadline to submit is February 18th, 2024.

UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival Welcome to the 10th Anniversary of the UPIKE Film and Media Arts Festival. The goal of our event is to promote the art of filmmaking in Eastern Kentucky. W...

Thank you all for coming out to support our film festival! We had 50+ unique attendees over our 2 day festival. Last night we held an awards ceremony and wanted to announce the winners online today:

SCREENPLAY AWARDS

Best UPIKE Screenplay - No Laughing Matter: The Story of John Wayne Gacy

Best Short Screenplay - Hightower

Best Feature Screenplay - Death and Poultry in Marion, Kentucky

FILM AWARDS

Young Filmmaker Award - Water Lullaby

Best UPIKE Film - In Persona

Best Animated Film - Merciful Angel

Best Experimental Film - Esoteria

Best Narrative Short - The Harbinger

Best Documentary Short - The Realization of Childhood Dreams

Best Documentary Feature - Appearing in Person

Spirit of the Mountains Award - Mighty Harlan County

UPIKE School of Social Work Impact Award - Picture Proof

Best of Show - Appearing in Person

Thank you all once again for submitting your amazing work to our festival! It was a pleasure to showcase it!

We've got another feature film coming up for you all today at 2:15 pm, Appearing In Person - The Life and Legend of Wade Hill. See the trailer below. Following that we've got lots more short film blocks featuring Q&A sessions with the filmmakers. The event is free and at the Pike County Library - Lee Avenue Branch!

Appearing In Person-Trailer A banjo prodigy in East Tennessee at age 13, bluegrass journeyman Wade Hill spent forty years on the road, living hard but his way, realizing brilliant show business…

Today is the 2nd and final day of our festival at the Pike County Library Lee Avenue Branch! We are kicking things off at 10 am with screenings from Appalshop, followed by work from our own UPIKE FMA students, Our first feature film of the day is Picture Proof and its trailer is below! Please come out and support these filmmakers that are here to show their work and discuss it with you.

Picture Proof Trailer This is "Picture Proof Trailer" by Jena Seiler on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Today we kick off our 9th Annual Film Festival at the Pike County Library Lee Avenue Branch! All screenings are free and open to the public! We have blocks of short films all day long starting at 12 noon. The opening night feature film is the documentary Mighty Harlan County: Film and it's showing at 6:45 pm! See the trailer below:

Mighty Harlan County Trailer 2

Here is the detailed schedule and full festival information handout for this year's event! Be sure to join us this Friday and Saturday at Pike County Libraries!

Our 9th annual film festival will be held at the Pike County Libraries - Lee Avenue Branch – 126 Lee Avenue in Pikeville, KY. The event will take place Friday, April 28th 2023 to Saturday, April 29th, 2023. The event will be free with no tickets required. A schedule of the screenings is currently posted to our website at the link below. We will be posting more about the upcoming films in the days ahead!

Schedule – UPIKE FMA Fest Our 9th annual film festival will be held at the Pike County Library Lee Avenue Branch – 126 Lee Avenue in Pikeville, KY. The event will take place Friday, April 28th 2023 to Saturday, April 29th, 2023. Friday, April 28th 12:00 pm – Animation Block Tatt Merciful Angel Water Lullaby Genpal Chance...

We are happy to announce that we are now taking film and screenplay submissions for our upcoming 2023 festival! Submit at https://filmfreeway.com/fmafest to compete for $1000 in prizes!

Films or filmmakers with a connection to our tri-state region of KY, VA, and WV can (as always with our festival) submit for free! If you are an alumnus of our festival I just emailed out a waiver code to the email we had on file for you. If you didn't get one just message me.

The final deadline to submit is March 5th, 2023 and the notification date is March 19th, 2023.

This year's festival will be Friday - Sunday April 28-30th at The Appalachian Center for the Arts in downtown Pikeville. This is the same venue we held the festival at last year.

We look forward to seeing your work!

UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival The goal of the UPIKE Film and Media Arts Festival is to promote the art of filmmaking in Eastern Kentucky. We accept films from across the country and acro...

Check out this news package about our film festival which was created by one of our UPIKE Film and Media Arts students in our film festivals and broadcasting classes, Emily Brown. https://youtu.be/6F90yxSDIck

2022 8th Annual UPIKE Film and Media Arts Festival - News Report - Bear TV News This video was made by Film and Media Arts students at the University of Pikeville (UPIKE) located in Eastern Kentucky in the Appalachian mountains. For mor...

Our 8th annual film festival wrapped up this past weekend and we want to thank the The Appalachian Center for the Arts for hosting us and the University of Pikeville and the City of Pikeville for providing the funding to make our event happen! We couldn't have done this without them or without the amazing support of the UPIKE Film and Media Arts students that were there to run the event! Finally, a special thank you to the filmmakers and screenwriters that submitted there work and came to support it (either in person or virtually)! If you missed our awards show here is a list of the winners that were announced:

Best of Show and Best Narrative Short - Piper Pence and the Pandemic
Best Narrative Feature - My Autopsy
Best Doc Feature - Big Old Goofy World
Spirit of the Mountains Award - Campaign of Miner Bo
Best UPIKE Film - Hide and Seek
Best UPIKE Script - Octagon
Best Feature Screenplay - A Thicker Kind of Blood
Best Short Screenplay - The Snake and the Apple
Best Doc Short - Lockdown Tale
Best Animated Film and Young Filmmaker Award - The Hole
Best Experimental Film - Rising the Spiral

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 30, is the 3rd and final day of the 8th Annual UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival at The Appalachian Center for the Arts in downtown Pikeville! All events are free and open to the public!

Schedule for Saturday, April 30th

9:00 am Documentary Shorts Block 2 – 1 Hour 45 Minutes with Q&A

10: 45 am Dramatic Shorts Block 2 – 1 Hour with Q&A

11:45 am Feature: My Autopsy – 2 Hours 15 Minutes with Q&A

“My Autopsy” is a story of the progression of a woman’s strength as she journeys to escape the invisible chains of a past abusive relationship. It is an exploration of the darker side of love and obsession, and how an emotional autopsy is sometimes necessary to realize our own power.

2:00 pm Dramatic Shorts Block 3 – 1 Hour 15 Minutes with Q&A

3:15 pm Feature: Blue Moon – 1 Hour 45 Minutes with Q&A

A man travels to rural eastern Kentucky to deal with the unexpected death of his estranged father.

5:00 pm Animation and Experimental Shorts Block – 45 Minutes with Q&A

5:45 pm Comedy Shorts Block – 1 Hour 15 Minutes with Q&A

7:00 pm Reception in App Lobby

A light reception will be held in the lobby prior to our awards show. This reception is open to filmmakers and their guests.

7:30 pm Awards Ceremony in App Theatre

Join us to see this year’s finalists and winners honored in our awards show.

Tomorrow, Friday, April 28th is the 2nd day of the 8th Annual UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival at The Appalachian Center for the Arts in downtown Pikeville! All events are free!

Schedule for Friday, April 29th

9:00 am – Dramatic Shorts Block 1 – 2 Hours with Q&A

11:00 am – Documentary Shorts Block 1 – 1 Hour 15 Minutes with Q&A

12:15 pm Feature: The Repairman – 2 Hours with Q&A

Attempting to save his sick child, a memory repairman and former hitman, Jack Whitlock, is drawn back to a life he thought he had left behind. When he is blindsided, unintended consequences arise and cause everyone from law enforcement, his former boss, and his current job to begin to question his motives and close in on him for the truth.

2:15 pm Feature: I’ve Had My Good Day – 1 Hour 45 Minutes with Q&A

This documentary chronicles a young man that achieves greatness as a Master Penman. Eventually, he turns his back on the art form until decades later he is rediscovered and championed to icon status.

4:00 pm Feature: Big Old Goofy World – 1 Hour 15 Minutes with Q&A

This documentary is the story of the little record label that could! Founded by the great John Prine and his two managing partners Al Bunetta and Dan Einstein.

5:15 pm Feature: The Campaign of Miner Bo – 1 Hour 45 Minutes with Q&A

After his conversation with Hillary Clinton goes viral and makes him one of the faces of the 2016 election, unemployed coal miner Bo Copley runs for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in West Virginia.

7:00 pm Horror Shorts Block – 1 Hour with Q&A

8:00 pm Feature: Hopewell – 2 Hours with Q&A

After being threatened to be run out of town for repeatedly refusing to help a strange and frightened young couple, a lonely and miserable old preacher must learn to move forward from his troubling past and face the terrifying reason why the couple had fled their rural, dilapidated home in terror.

For Saturday's films go see our complete schedule at http://www.fmafest.org/deadlines/

Today is the first day of the 8th Annual UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival at The Appalachian Center for the Arts in downtown Pikeville! All events are free and open to the public!

Schedule for Thursday, April 28th

12:00 PM Screenplay Table Reading: A Thicker Kind of Blood (108 Pages) & Q&A

After a brutal attack by one of his patients, a traumatized psychiatrist forms an unusual friendship with a wounded special forces veteran and embarks on a dangerous campaign against a backwoods bully who threatens to expose dark family secrets.

2:45 PM Screenplay Table Reading: Octagon (60 Pages) & Q&A

A young MMA fighter, Daniel Reese, embarks on a journey to conquer his opponents in this television pilot written by a UPIKE student.

4:30 PM Screenplay Table Reading: The Snake and the Apple (20 Pages) & Q&A

Holly writes stories. When the princess in her new book faces the conflict of embracing her darker ideals, Holly finds herself reflecting the struggles of real life. But her sister’s caught on, and intends to provoke something sinister.

5:15 PM UPIKE Showcase – 1 Hour 45 Minutes with Q&A

All films in this block were made by UPIKE students between the Fall of 2021 and the present. We have a variety of films including several short documentary films and several short fictional films.

7:00 pm Feature – Shaped by Fire – 2 Hours with Q&A

For several months, the staff of Pike TV followed the Pikeville Fire Department in hopes of documenting who they are and what challenges they face each day. This feature-length documentary is the result of their work.

For a full list of the films and events we are showing the rest of the week go to: http://www.fmafest.org/deadlines/